B'lore varsity apologises to Education dept

Bangalore university officials have apologised to the Higher Education department for providing erroneous information in response to a show-cause notice the department had issued in regard to non-implementation of the BEd Task Force report.

Bangalore University had appointed a Task Force to survey BEd colleges and their infrastructure. The Task Force submitted its report, which recommended the disaffiliation of several colleges with poor facilities.

Although the report was unanimously accepted by the Academic Council and the Syndicate (the decision-making bodies of the university), the BU failed to implement the recommendations.

Questioning this decision, the Higher Education department served a show-cause notice on the university. The varsity, however, claimed on January 17 that the recommendations were not valid as the Task Force had been quashed by the High Court. On the basis of this claim, acting vice-chancellor Rangaswamy, in a letter, asked the department to withdraw the show-cause notice.

It has also been revealed that Rangaswamy’s letter to the Higher Education department was sent after the Academic Council had resolved the issue of the validity of the Task Force.Faulty legal advice

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Rangaswamy claimed innocence and said whatever had happened was not his fault. He also claimed that he did not understand the High Court order and had merely acted on the advice of the university’s legal advisor.

“The order is highly confusing. We could not understand it. Even the university legal advisors did not understand it,” he said.

It must be noted, however, that Rangaswamy chairs both the Academic Council and Syndicate meetings, and is thus in a position to be completely aware of the proceedings in these two bodies. When asked about this, Rangaswamy said he was “very confused” and needed to go through all the documents again.

Earlier, following a writ petition by private MEd college managements, the Karnataka High Court, on October 9, 2012, had barred the Task Force from inspecting MEd colleges on the ground that the Academic Council meeting did not have the required quorum of 35 members. Using this as a pretext, Rangaswamy wrote to the department stating that the Task Force itself had been quashed.

In addition, the Academic Council, in a meeting on November 30, had decided that the quorum for the Academic Council meetings was 21 and not 35 — as decided by the university in a Council meeting held in 2006 (the university has the authority to decide the quorum number for its meetings). The university had also appealed to the High Court on this matter.

Conspiracy

Sources in BU told Deccan Herald that just a day before the show-cause notice was issued, two university Syndicate members and a former registrar of BU had accused the Higher Education department office of irregularities.

Sources said that this was a ploy to “stop education officials from issuing the show-cause notice to the university.” This has been confirmed by officials in the Higher Education department.

It is also alleged that the top University officials, along with a few Syndicate members, were hand-in-glove with the managements of private colleges and, they do not want these colleges disaffiliated.